Bound by Love
by Raberba girl
Summary: The bonds of love transcend worlds, and can never be broken. A collection of all the canon-based Kingdom Hearts fanfics I post from now on that don't fit in any other series.


_Bound by Love_ summary: The bonds of love transcend worlds, and can never be broken. A collection of all the canon-based Kingdom Hearts fanfics I post from now on that don't fit in any other series.

_Bound by Love_ introduction: When I joined AO3 recently, I just shoved almost all my canon-based Kingdom Hearts stories into the same series. XD I have _so many_ canon-based stories/chapters (_Bound by Love_ on AO3 now has 124 "chapters"), and there's _so much_ cross-referencing, it just seemed easier that way, and I really wish I'd had the foresight to do that on FFN and MMO, too. :/ So yeah; from now on, all my canon-based Kingdom Hearts fanfiction that doesn't fit in any other series will just go here.

Sapphire Eyes

Kingdom Hearts fanwork: Drabble challenge by Inmate XIV, written by Raberba girl

Summary: For Inmate XIV's Minor Character Challenge. Story from the perspective of Sora's mother.

Introduction: I want to eventually do this challenge for Olette, and also Repliku. I'm starting with Sora's mom, though, because I've already made an OC for her in some of my fanfiction - her name is Sapphique King, and she's also Ven's mother. I thought this would be a really good opportunity to flesh out my headcanon backstory for Sora and his family. Plus, writing about Destiny Islands society is pretty fun for some reason. ^^ Although it's definitely not my favorite world from a gameplay aspect, I feel like it'd be the most enjoyable KH world to actually live in.

**1. Birth (rough draft)**

You don't have to give birth in order to have a child.

My very first emotion upon seeing little Ventus wasn't envy. It was delight, because he was the most _adorable_ baby I'd ever seen before.

Envy was the _second_ emotion. I looked at my sister-in-law cradling her newborn son, with her husband looking so proud and loving and attentive, and that _baby_, that sweet precious infant who suddenly seemed to be their whole world... I wanted it so, so badly.

I never dreamed that it would become mine in a way I never expected, in a way that was horrible and dark and ugly. That isn't the way the world should work. That isn't the way _people_ should work.

But it did, and I can look back and say that I and my family were so blessed by it, but it was also a nightmare, full of horror and grief and countless tears.

I suppose it started when my husband's brother was lost at sea. Kal and I had been trying for our own child for a while, but that plan, along with the rest of our lives, was set aside until the darkest days were past. The widow's grief was only to be expected - as she shut down and hid herself away from the world, it was left to us to arrange the funeral, make sure Ven and his mother were taken care of, settle all the business and accounts, and the hundred other things that needed to be done... Of course, the loss of his brother was difficult for Kal, too, and at times it seemed like I was the only one keeping our two small families afloat.

She eventually recovered, or so we thought. Her spirit still seemed to be gone, she was quieter and never smiled; but she went through the motions, returned to work, began to resume some semblance of a normal life.

I tried to check on her often. Little Ven seemed more ragged and dirty in those days than he should have been (as did their house...), but he seemed happy enough, especially since I always brought food with me. As we ate, he would chatter at me in his half-intelligible baby-talk about the little things he had done during the day, and only later did it occur to me to wonder how many of his adventures had been conducted alone - if his mother even bothered to have anyone watch her two-year-old son during the day. She certainly never asked me, even though I'd quit my job months before and could have looked after him while she was at work.

When she didn't answer the door for three days in a row, I couldn't rid myself of the feeling that something was wrong, and I ended up breaking into the house. Which was empty - or so it seemed, until I finally heard a small sound from a locked closet, and we found poor Ventus inside after we'd finally managed to break open the door. To this day, none of us know exactly how long he'd been trapped in there. To this day, none of us know where his mother disappeared to, or if she's even still alive.

That was how I had my first child. That beautiful little boy, who had represented the future joy I would have with my own children, unexpectedly became mine himself. Not from the love between my husband and I, not through months of intimate growth and hours of pain; instead, from death and loss and grief and abandonment. I don't think he's yet managed overcome it - he's simply survived as best as he knows how, through that terrible beginning and all the difficulties that followed and all the horrors he endured during the years we were apart.

For my oldest son, each day has been a struggle. Even back on our peaceful islands, with no one left to seek his destruction, where I do everything I can to make him feel loved and welcomed, he still fights as if to survive.

He's changed, though, and not all the changes are for the worse. Sometimes I catch glimpses of that sweet tiny child he used to be, the toddler who'd sit across from me in the warm afternoons, heedlessly spilling crumbs as he told me of the exciting imaginary worlds he had visited that day. Whenever he tells me now of the real worlds he's been to, or the people who keep loving him no matter how often he pushes them away; when he lowers his guard to offer me gifts, from flowers to hugs to moments of simple, unhesitating obedience; when he is kind to his younger brother or when he looks at the star-shaped charm he never parts from...

In moments like that, I can see the real Ventus, shining behind all the pain. The light in his heart is still alive, and responds to ours. Perhaps it will take a long, long time before he feels safe enough to emerge fully - but as long as he keeps his eyes on the light, keeps reaching out, keeps taking those steps one by one...

We wait patiently for him. Even if the rest of them give up, _I_ will keep waiting for him, because he is my son, and nothing in all the worlds could ever destroy my love for him.

o.o.o

Author's Notes: This challenge series is a hybrid in that I'm not planning for it to be a real multi-chapter with a continuous storyline or anything, but it's not gonna be a bunch of random one-shots like most of my other challenge series are, either. I'm planning for the installments to be standalones, but which all take place in the same "universe."

Random writing update: I've been trying hard to stick with my Back To School Plan (where I work and write during the week, answer messages on Fridays, read my friends' fanfiction on Saturdays, etc.). It's very difficult right now, but it seems to be working as well as can be expected, and I'm hoping that it'll get better once I get used to it (and once I start getting more dang _sleep_ on a regular basis).

When writing on the computer, I've been mostly focusing on sonicdisney's Ansem/apprentices contest prize (Ienzo's the main character). I have a daily plan for it that I _hope_ will mean it'll be finished before the end of the month. Other high priority fics for September are Medli45's contest prize (Terra/Riku) and the ZekuNami fic I'd intended to write for my friend Mirae over a year ago. *facepalm*

When I don't have computer access, I've been wildly scribbling out an all-platonic Aqua/Zack/Xion/Vanitas(/Axel/Saïx/Ven/Terra) modern fantasy AU in my notebook. It's for a challenge (not a theme challenge), I've written three chapters (out of five total), and I forgot how much fun multi-chapters can be~ They're harder than one-shots and drabbles, but better. (It'll be a short multi-chapter, though; probably less than 10,000 words. So it _could_ have been a one-shot, but the challenge specifically called for a multi-chapter. XD)

I also finished planning out the RokuKai/SoNami multi-chapter I'm doing for Cherished Tenshi's Reversal of Hearts challenge, as an early NaNoWriMo project in October. I'm excited for that one, too, and I hooooooooppppppppppe I can finish it within the allotted timeframe ._.

Complete: 1/30


End file.
